Beris comes across a fortune-teller in the bazaar, and wants to ask a question.

When

It is noon of the seventh day of the sixth month of the fourteenth turn of the 12th pass.

Where

Central Bazaar, Igen Weyr

OOC Date

08 Jul 2018 23:00

Central Bazaar

All roads in the weyr ultimately lead here, to this center of commerce. Canvas awnings jut out over time worn, sandy cobblestone, sheltering customers and wares alike from the majority of Igen's elements, and funnel scents both mouthwatering and vomit inducing through the thin streets. Almost all store fronts are open air, delineated by sandstone arches with intricately carved facades. The insides of these stone-shingled buildings act as an amplifier for the salesmens' bawled enticements, and are held up by the chipped swirls of marble pillars.

Midday and the Bazaar is bustling with people around the various food and drink stalls, finding shade from the summer sun to enjoy a meal. Sat on a woven mat, along one of the lanes of traffic, a girl of indeterminate age is dressed in rather garish fashion. Crisom and sapphire, gold and black, her form is hidden under layers of gauzy shawls and veils, dark brown hair falling as straight as a whip to her shoulders peeking out from under the sheer fabric. With a veil covering nose and mouth, and the tassles from the shawl over her head mixing with long bangs to partially obscured dark eyes thickly lined with kohl. In front of her on the mat, there is a beautifully painted plate with a cup resting on it. A crudely made sign advertises fortunes told for a mere 1/8th of a mark. Sitting as still as a statue, it's not reasily apparently if she's even paying attention to the crowd around her or lost in some kind of reverie.

It's hard to miss the sight of the figure, in all its interesting colours. Moreso when one is browsing the bazaar, eyes inspecting one stall after the next. What Beris is shopping for, only she knows, but the distraction offered by the seated figure is enough to draw the young woman in that direction. She looks at the still girl for a moment, and then slowly reads the sign. She's dressed for the bazaar, head covered with a light shawl that laps over her shoulders; her arms and legs are covered with long, loose cotton clothing, all light in colour. The black halo of her hair can be seen around her face, and her dark eyes glitter with intrigue as she puts a hand into a pocket somewhere beneath the layers of fabrics, drawing out an 1/8th mark with a herder's stamp. She toys with it between the fingers of that hand as she ponders whether to just put it on the plate, but eventually settles for asking: "you tell fortunes?" Is the person even living, or just some elaborate statue dressed up?

With a rustle that sends the little metal discs used as trim on several of the scarves ringing with an eerily musical quality, the fortune-teller's eyes lift to Beris, her voice husky and kept low as she addresses the potential customer who wandered over. "Aye lass, an eighth and I can tell you whatever you want to know. From health to wealth, love and family, the bones reveals all…" she trails off as she reverently lifts the cup from the plate and shows Beris that it contains an assortment of small bones, old and brown with age.

Probably a good thing Beris didn't go pinging marks around the place, and certainly not into the cup! She has a serious face, beneath the shade of her shawl. "Yes, please." Voice low, she glances about, as if worried that someone's watching her about to partake in this entrancing ritual. Then she stops toying with the mark in her hand and holds it out towards the fortune-teller, her dark eyes serious as she commits to this. "Family. That's what I'd like to know about." she says, voice softer still, barely audible above the bustle and noise of the crowds.

A hand moving faster than the eye takes the mark and secrets it away somewhere into the layers of gauzy fabric. From behind her back, the dark-eyed fortune-teller pulls out a cushion and places is across from her, gesturing for Beris to take a seat on it as she adjusts subtly, arms shaking free of the fabric and poised dramatically as she begins. "First you need to imbue the bones with your essense and your question. Take up the cup, place one hand over the top and shake it until you get the urge to toss them here," she indicates the plate in front of her. Taking up the cup, she hands it reverently over to the dark-haired woman.

Beris is used to marks being taken quickly around the bazaar, but even she blinks at the speed with which it disappears into the depths of the fortune-teller's clothes. With the pillow produced, and the gesture, she settles herself down as directed, pushing back a strand of hair that's escaped her head cover and rearranging the shawl slightly. She nods silently when given those instructions, and carefully takes the cup, one hand supporting it beneath while the other covers the top. She shakes it pretty hard, feeling the bones inside rattling against her palm. Bets not think what animal they've come from. Then, impulsively, she takes her hand off the top to toss the items down onto the plate, looking down at the arrangement of bones that means…nothing to her. Her dark eyes flick up to watch the fortune-teller.

The array of bones on the plate are deeply scrutinized as the fortune-teller leans over them with a hum of interest. "Interesting…" she muses softly before dark eyes look up at Beris to scrutinize her briefly before looking back down at the bones. With a subtle flourish of fingers dancing over the spread of bones on the plate in front of her, she speaks up again, "Is there a specific question you are looking for an answer to regarding family?" she queries.

Beris starts to lean in, too, out of curiosity for the woman's words rather than what can be seen in the bones. She looks up when the dark eyes are on here, but soon enough the fortune-teller is looking down again. "Um," her pause belies her nervousness about doing this, and after a moment to gather herself she says, quietly: "will I have a family of my own?" Her eyes watch the bowed figure before her, intense.

Dark eyes wander back up to the woman's face, again silently assessing before her gaze returns to the bones, huming again as her fingers stop over a pair of what could be knuckle bones, butted up against each other, "You have someone you consider family but who is not your blood, a betrothed maybe.." she muses before continuing, hand wandering over to what looks like a loose pyramid made out of chicken leg bones, "There's distance between you and where you came from." Her voice is taking on an almost trance-like quality as she pauses, again taking a moment to really study the placement of the various bones.

Beris watches silently as the fortune-teller does whatever mystical thing she has to do to get the answers. There are slow nods as the woman speaks, agreement with what she's saying. The bones make no more sense to her than they did before, but she still looks at them, as if expecting them to suddenly make some sort of sense. When there's a pause in the information being given, Beris leans in a little more. "And ahead?" The mysteries of the future - that's what she wants clarity on, apparently!

"Ahead…" the fortune-teller muses as she continues her study. Moving her hand to hover over what looks like a wishbone, she holds it steady there a moment studying the lay of the bone fragments around it. "Children you will have, two…no three," she says with more certainty and a bob of her head that sends the veil over the lower half of her face to rippling. "Be wary though, there may be some false alarms on the way, but they shall be healthy and hale."

Beris peers down at the wishbone-looking thing, but…nope, it's just a bone as far as she can see. Her eyes flick up when, with certainty, the fortune-teller tells her she's going to have multiple kids. "False alarms?" she murmurs, not quite understanding fully…but there's a light in her eyes at the idea of one day having a family. Even if this is a totally hypothetical thing predicted by a soothsayer.

"Times when you may think your pregnant but it turns out you aren't," the fortune-teller explains to the woman reassuringly. "Don't let them dishearten you though, a full family you will have, and one that will flourish and grow." She makes a finaly flourishing sweep over the bones splayed on the plate. "Have you anythign else you would like to know lass?"

"Oh." So obvious now! Beris's cheeks are a little flushed, beneath the shade of her shawl, which she plays with now as she rearranges the way it wraps over her shoulders. "I…" Does she have enough question? Her eyes narrow as she thinks, but then she shakes her head. "No…thank you." She's got enough to chew over with just that! "Will you be here again?" She asks, looking across at the fortune-teller.

"I might be. I travel through here fairly regularly," the fortune teller replies as she gathers the bones up reverently and deposits them back in the cup before placing it just so back on the plate. "Thank you so much for your custom, and I wish you a happy day," bowing her head deeply in Beris' direction she folds her hands together in front of her chest. Then she seems to settle back into the repose Beris found her in, hooded eyes staring at all and nothing at the same time.

"Thank you," Beris says again, and she sits there for a few seconds after the woman has gone into that strange stillness again. As happy with the outcome as bemused by the whole encounter, she gets to her feet, adjusts her clothes, and, with a final glance down at the still figure, heads off to be absorbed by the bustling crowds.